


Reconnection

by TopicalAmazon (Animasta)



Series: Danganronpa's Shortest Season [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 10:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13809702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animasta/pseuds/TopicalAmazon
Summary: "They're not... telling me anything." Tsumugi says to the others, anger pouring off of her, "They're angry at me... at all of you, for making them lose money. It's up to you whether you want to reconnect with your family... or even if you CAN."They're all ready to leave, and they all have the information they need, but... for most of them... It's scary. It's really scary. But what else can they do?"Hey, don't worry... even if some of us don't have someone to come back to... we'll all be together, right?" Kaede says, trying to comfort everyone.





	1. Kaede Akamatsu

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have any plans for concrete updates for this as I wrote the first chapter in an hour when I woke up, but I will try my best to finish it :)
> 
> Though I do have a few ideas for others!

Kaede couldn’t help but clutch the small piece of paper in her hands with a vice grip. Team Danganronpa had made them stay a few weeks at their recovery center, even if they weren’t getting their memories back… and a lot of them didn’t. In fact, only Ouma, Kirumi, Korekiyo and Iruma did. Plus, Their personalities, at least, hadn’t been bad people. Ouma was in the game to save his siblings from extreme poverty. At least he could take comfort that his actual personality was a prankster, though he was definitely more kind than he was before. Kiyo was helping his sister end the killing game, and was vaguely the same, just less… obviously creepy? Iruma’s personality had shifted more towards the wilting flower she’d been, but she was still happy about it; she’d gone purely because she was extremely lonely. She was glad she survived, but she was even MORE glad that most of them promised to keep in touch.

Leaving them, and getting on the bus, was hard. Harder than she expected... She'd bonded with everyone in the recovery center, and she was sad to see everyone go. Even Tsumugi... though she was one of the few people who did. Tenko in particular couldn't really stay in the same room as her for very long. Tsumugi wasn't a bad person, just... she was just over her head. She'd confessed to her, and her alone, that by the time she FINALLY got to the floating school, she was mortified. She hadn't expected that she'd get attached to them so easily, and considering people were going to actually DIE... it was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down. She was extremely happy that they'd left without any deaths.

The house she was looking at was… fairly run down. Blue paint was chipping off the walls, one of the windows had a crack in it, and the front awning was severely broken. Still… She had a mother. She had a twin sister. They… likely didn’t approve of this. At least, that’s what she got from her video. She basically said she’d rather die than watch humanity act like it was anything special. She seemed to hate everyone and everything, but not even a burning hatred. It was just like, they were there, so she’d hate them. Just like that. A shrug.

As much as she didn’t like her, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy.

She steps up to the door quietly, and knocks firmly before she thinks herself out of it. Even if the people here had made her what she ended up being… she still needed to know. Even Tsumugi didn’t have that information.

The door opened slowly, but when the woman on the other side of the door noticed who was standing there, the door burst open. The older woman, no doubt her mother, went in for a hug immediately.

“Oh my god, I couldn’t believe… When Aina told me you’d applied to Danganronpa behind my back, and that you were going? Especially this year, when it was… all… real?” She was drowning her shoulder in tears, and she couldn’t even wrap her arms around the woman, “The fact that you made it out alive… not only that, but you made it out WITH everyone? I’m… so…”

“It’s okay… Mom?” She couldn’t help but add a questioning inflection to it… She looked like a person who COULD be her mother, but…

“Mom… I told you.” A voice not unlike hers sounded from inside the house, “It was unlikely she’d remember us. Bring her inside so we can talk about… everything.”

“Right, right…” She extracted herself from the hug and wiped her eyes, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be!” She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the woman who was supposed to be her mother, “Please, don’t be… I’m here, okay? We can figure this all out together.”

“Well, you’re certainly not the Kaede I knew.” The girl, who… looked exactly like her, said disdainfully, purposefully not looking into her face, “She enjoyed it when Mom cried.”

Huh… The girl who was her sister was angry. It was obvious they were twins, identical twins at that, but she held herself differently. She was dressed simply, with jeans and a t-shirt that had some sort of… science thing, on it?

“Aina!” The mom turns on her angrily, “That’s enough out of you.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just… nervous.” She didn’t LOOK nervous, but maybe there was a tell on her that she wasn’t getting, because she had no idea who she was… what her dreams were, what she was like as a kid, what her favorite piano piece was…

“I understand.” She smiles kindly at her daughter and turns to Kaede, “I’m… I guess I don’t really know you. You were my child for 17 years, and I don’t have any idea who you are.”

Kaede couldn’t help but wilt a little, but Aina merely snorts and says, “You didn’t have any idea who she was ANYWAY. She was really good at pretending she wasn’t a horrible misanthrope.” Aina hasn’t really… looked at her at all, “Let’s sit down at the table and, well, get it all out on the table.”

The table in question was a fairly run down dining table, and one of the legs was held up by a book, but it was clearly lovingly decorated. Sunflowers and vines, cherry blossoms and dandelions decorated it, though some of them were clearly done by a child.

“We… we all made that table, together.” The mom notices her look and sighs, “When you were 7, I complained about how boring the table was… So you decided to paint a simple little flower at night. When we woke up, I had the inspiration that we could all do it together. It was… one of my favorite memories.” She was getting choked up and quickly made her way to one of the chairs.

“That sounds… nice.”

“Well, it does, until you realize that you were trying to irritate Mom. You used it to your advantage when she said she had that idea, and you got extra allowance money because of it.” Aina sniffs, “Something good ended up happening, but that doesn’t mean it was done in good faith.”

She sat on the chair facing her… mother, and for the first time really looked at her. They had the same blonde hair, but hers was cut fairly short. She had a decent amount of muscle tone, wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans that were ripped naturally. The look in her eyes was one that… That made her happy. She clearly loved both of her children, so much… how could you hate someone like this?

Aina was sitting on the chair, though not facing the table, “So, Kaede… do you have your memories?”

Kaede shook her head, “No… I couldn’t. She was just so… cold, and angry.”

“She was. Mom never listened to me very much, said I was exaggerating.” She sighs, “You were the ‘popular’ one in school, so she thought I was jealous. Yeah, I was a little jealous… but it’s not like I was destined to be unpopular, you know? We looked the same. I could’ve been popular easily, but hanging around you for that long…”

“Wow… you really hated her.” Kaede could not, would not refer to the horrible girl from the video as her.

“She was… I don’t know if you even got how awful she was just from that video.” Aina was angry now, twisting and turning her fingers forcefully, “She… I think she wanted to live in the Tragedy, the one from the first couple seasons. To live in a world where it was kill or be killed, and you couldn’t trust anyone. Her favorite character was Junko, and not because she was an interesting character.”

She didn’t know who Junko was, but… the girl sounded awful, regardless.

The mom, meanwhile, was leaking tears. She wasn’t doing very well, hearing what kind of person her former daughter was. She could understand that; the girl was very good at hiding her true self, apparently. The only person who seemed to know was her twin sister.

“Did… Did she do anything…” Kaede almost didn’t want to know, but she had to, “Anything I would need to… make right?”

“Hah… To think, hearing my ‘sister’ want to apologize to people.” Aina acted distant, but it was clear she was emotionally affected by this whole scenario too, “No. Don’t worry. She talked a big talk, but she wasn’t going to do anything bad like that. She bullied plenty of people in school, of course, but nothing major.”

“Okay… I guess that’s, uh… okay.” Kaede looked around, noting the sad state of the house in general, “Can you tell me about… yourselves? They didn’t tell any of us that much. I think they were angry at how we got out without any… murder…”

“Um… I’m Hana Akamatsu.” The mom says, forcing herself to be emotionless, “I’m… I was her mother. I do landscaping, though my business doesn’t really do very well… It was better when… He was around, but…” Her attempt at hiding her emotions wasn’t fairing very well, and she was becoming emotional again.

“Our dad… died, when we were 8.” Aina offers quietly, “Ran over by a car. It wasn’t even something you could really be angry for; A stupid bee flew into the car and startled the driver, who was deathly allergic, and the car swerved right onto the sidewalk where dad was. Died instantly… Dad, not the driver.”

“Wow… I’m so sorry that happened.” Kaede… didn’t know how to feel about it. He was dead… She didn’t know him at all… that was on purpose. How was she supposed to feel? He was her father, but he was dead. She literally couldn’t talk to him ever again.

“Yeah. I think that’s what caused your… shift.” Aina finally glances at her and her eyes are soft, “She wasn’t a great person before it, obviously, but it was more that she was… more innocent about it? But once that happened, and ESPECIALLY when the driver explained himself… you turned. It’s not like we could blame him, right? So instead of forgiving him, you… she decided that the whole of humanity was fucking worthless.” She finally corrects herself after realizing how bad it was making her feel.

“Sorry… She isn’t you. I shouldn’t…” It’s clear she disliked her sister, and it’s bleeding into her opinion of Kaede. For good reason, obviously; she couldn’t imagine being in her shoes and just accepting this.

“Aina, meanwhile… she’s really smart.” The mom says after finally getting her emotions under control, “She wants to work at JAXA, and finally get the Mars colony that we’ve been talking about for ages. I don’t know why, there’s nothing green on Mars, but… I’m super proud of her.” She moves to take Aina’s hand, who blushes and moves it away.

“Come on… It’s not that big of a deal.” She huffs.

“Wow, that’s awesome!” Kaede exclaims, “Having such an awesome plan like that… I can’t even plan tomorrow right now.”

“Can you… still play Piano?” Aina asks, interested, “No one’s really said anything about that over the years, even the participants who are most open about their experiences never say anything.”

“Yeah… could she not?” Of course, she didn’t play at ALL during their time in the Team Danganronpa offices, so she’s a little rusty, but she can still feel her fingers. She can feel her fingers, pressing the keys down with precision.

“Well… Not especially. She did listen to a lot of piano music, though.” Aina shrugs.

“As far as your plans… You don’t have to decide them now.” Hana offers, kindness radiating from her, “You can have some time to rest. It’s summer, after all. Aina’s off to college in the fall, so you two can have some time to get to know each other… and us too.” She finishes softly, realizing that she’s not the only one who needs to reconnect.

“Um… Well, I guess… I do have a lot of money. Tsumugi said that I wouldn’t need to work for 40 years, and maybe she was exaggerating a little, but not by much.” She can’t help but be embarrassed, “Not that I think I deserve this money, but… Maybe we could try rebuilding the house?”

She’s thinking back to the table, to a time when the former Kaede wasn’t so awful… Maybe she can use that same idea to reconnect to a family she doesn’t know, but… she wants to.

“That sounds fun.” Aina says with a small smirk, “Though I think she just wants space to put a grand piano…” That wasn’t in her mind before, but now that she said it…

“I’d… like that.” Hana’s eyes are glowing with excitement, “I’d like that a lot.”


	2. Escape / Angie Yonaga & Kirumi Tojo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp I don't know how this happened but Angie/Kirumi is now a pairing
> 
> i've also updated the tags, for content warnings... just a heads up! it gets worse than preshow Kaede's misanthropy!

“Angie, are you… feeling well? Do you need anything?” Kirumi Tojo asks gently, towards Angie Yonaga’s back. She’s staring at a phone… Her pre-show phone, actually. It’d shown up in the mail, inside a very suspicious package. Rantaro told them not to open it, and called one of the participant liaisons to make sure the package was on the level; No one should know where he lived, and especially that Angie was there. They assured him that it was checked over by them first, and it really was just her phone.

So as soon as they’d verified it was safe, she’d taken it immediately and set off towards her room. Rantaro’s penthouse was pretty gigantic, actually… He’d already had the money from his previous win, and apparently his first (and only) big purchase was this place. It was a beautiful apartment complex near the ocean, and the view from the big penthouse windows were… awe inspiring. It was tastefully decorated, though a little more bright than she would’ve preferred… not that she has any room to compl-

She does. She does. She’s not a maid. She does not work for Rantaro. As his friend, and as an unofficial renter, she has a right to tell him that his decorations are tasteless, and that the couch is way too uncomfortable for anyone to sit on.

She’s not a maid.

“Ahh… Kirumi.” Angie says brightly, putting the phone down quickly as soon as she realizes that someone’s watching her and turning around, “How can Angie help you?”

“I… We’re all worried.” She says simply, betraying none of her emotions.

“It’s not a big deal. Nyahaha, not a big deal at all!’ She’s grinning, now, though it seems a little forced. She wouldn’t have realized that before, but… they’ve become very close.

“Angie… Is that true?”

“Oh, Kirumi! Angie cannot hide anything from you!” Her smile is more real, though it’s still a little sad, “Did you know Angie’s given name? I am obviously not Japanese, yes?”

“I was curious about that, but I assume there was a reason. What is it, if I may ask?”

“Angela Te’o.” She goes back to the phone and stares at it, “Angie was born on the outskirts of the biggest city on Upolu, Samoa’s second largest island. According to this information, Angie lived there until she was 16… when she escaped from her horrible family to get married, here in glorious Nippon!”

“You’re… married?” Kirumi was… a little surprised. They were, after all, aged appropriately for the situation; Rantaro was the eldest at 20, but the youngest of them was only 16 (Himiko). She’d been a little surprised at first, that they weren’t the same age, but it only made logical sense that some of them would be older or younger.

“Nope! Angie is a free woman!” She laughs, unkindly, “Because ‘Angie’ did not consent to be married. Only the woman who inhabited my body was! Luckily, Atua has seen fit to place my soul inside an appropriate shell.” She mentioned Atua less and less, though whether she still believed was a mystery to her. This time, it was almost sarcastic.

“I see. That… makes sense. Did your… video say anything about any of it?” Some of them were more forthcoming with their interview videos than others. Kaede, for example, was quite willing to discuss it with everyone. Ryoma as well. Some of them, however… including herself and Angie… did not. They weren’t treated differently, of course. Just… some of them had things they wanted to hide.

“Yes.” She answers coldly, staring at the phone with murderous intent, “In fact… Angie has it right here. I trust you, Kirumi… Will you watch it with me, together? Angie… is in need of advice.”

She couldn’t tell you why they gravitated towards each other in the recovery center. From any angle, it was strange. Kirumi herself was irreligious to the highest degree, Angie was. She didn’t have an artistic bone in her body (presumably), and gravitated towards more structured things, while Angie was creative to a fault sometimes, losing herself in her imagination. Even after all that… they were often alone, together. Sometimes watching a movie, sometimes sitting silently… It was almost strange. They’d gotten to know each other, when they barely knew anything about themselves that wasn’t fabricated.

“Of course, Angie.” She wanted to offer the same back, but… it still haunted her. Her eyes still haunted her.

“Angie wonders if Kirumi will be mad at her… Angie does not think she is the same as what happened to Kaede, or Kaito.” Angie was still bright and cheery as always… she’d learned that to gauge her mood, you needed to discern how much she was faking her cheeriness at any given moment. She didn’t have a single amount of natural cheer right now, so it must’ve been pretty bad.

“I… No, of course not.” It was illogical. The people who did get their memories back all had their reasons, and none of them blamed the others for not doing so. Oma, while a self proclaimed ‘supreme leader’, worried about the 6 sisters he left behind. Miu cycled between wilting violet and crude braggart at a moment’s notice, and she wanted to… pick one. Korekiyo… Well, considering what Tsumugi did to him, and what Yukiko did for them all… He had no other choice.

“Ahh… Kirumi has not seen it, yet. Do not promise things that you cannot be certain of.”

“Angie… Please do not worry.” She moved towards the bed, finally, and sat down beside her. She spooned the smaller girl and grabbed her middle, “I will always be your friend. I promise.”

“Ahh… Angie does not deserve such an amazing friend… but there’s no room to argue, so…” She digs into her softly and starts pressing buttons on the phone, “Angie watched this video… many times. Often, when we were sitting quietly together, Angie was debating what to do.” She stopped suddenly, having pulled up a web page after entering her login details. She stopped speaking, waiting for the video to start.

Angie was… crying. That was apparent off the bat. She was dressed in a high school uniform of some kind, some generic sailor uniform. It took a full minute for her to stop crying, and to finally start the video.

“I… My name is Angie Y-Y-Y-Yonaga… A-A-Angela Te’o… I-I don’t know...” She’s stuttering, still under the effect of her previous crying spell, “I… I moved h-h-h-here to J-Japan, from Samoa, when… I was 16. My… My parents were trad-traditional people, and I knew… I knew I couldn’t be open to them about m-m-myself…”

“This is why you moved to Japan, yes? To marry… Haru Yonaga?” Tsumugi’s cheerful voice was muted, somewhat, by the obvious crying girl… though only superficially. 

“Yes… She and I were… big fans of this old A-A-Anime… I’d met her online when I was 12, and we talked e-e-e-everyday…” Angie wasn’t crying anymore, but she couldn’t look the camera in the eye either. She kept glancing behind, or at the floor. “So when I… I came… out. To her… and I admitted I had… feelings… for her… She said. She said. She s-s-s-s-aid…”

“I love you, right?” Tsumugi’s voice finished off.

“Yes, I f-forgot that was… in my a-a-a-application…” She giggles brokenly, “So… when she said we could get… get married, and I could… I could leave my awful parents… I agreed immediately. It was… It was going to be legal, she said… Her mother worked as… as a… immigration officer, and she could… could… help.”

“Of course… that was as long as you were married to her daughter.”

“Yes… they… it didn’t take long, after the w-w-w-wedding… to learn how much she actually… cared about me.” She wasn’t even trying to pick her head up anymore… she was barely able to keep herself standing, “She was… abusive… They made me do all the… the chores, and… b...beat me, when I didn’t… They were very… exacting.”

Angie was crying now… she could feel it on her arm. She couldn’t help but hug the girl even tighter, hoping to protect her against this awful story.

“So… you snuck here. You think we can help?”

“I… I cannot, will not, go back… Not to my parents… They told me I was no longer their daughter, after all… Not to Haru… I deserve… better than to be her slave.” Pre-show Angie was getting some energy back in her after Tsumugi talked back, “I will do anything to be on this show. I will be allowed to stay in Japan if I win, yes?”

“Yes, but… it IS the one where people actually die. You’re… aware of that as well, yes?”

“I’d… I’d rather die than be a slave to anyone else.” She smiles, brightly, eyes red from all the crying she’s done, “It is… a win-win situation, I think.”

“Okay. I shouldn’t say this… but I think you’re in. I’m… not unsympathetic to your plight.” Tsumugi says calmly.

“Ahh… but you will not help unless I agree to be on your show, right? Angie wasn’t aware of how cold Japan was until I got here… but I learned, eventually.” Angie’s cold, icy stare was staring directly into the camera now.

…

“Wow.” Kirumi couldn’t help but say that as the video faded away, “That’s…”

“Do you think Angie is bad? She did not deserve to die, I think.” Angie put down the phone gently and sighed, “Angie cannot say that she is better than the girl who… risked her life to escape two awful situations.”

“I… I can’t judge you. It’s not my place to do so.” Kirumi shakes her head roughly, brushing up against Angie’s beautiful white hair, “It was an… awful choice they presented us with.”

They were only able to regain their memories for the first month they were out. After that, the memories were deleted. Tsumugi mentioned that it was more than likely payback for the shortened season. For making them look like fools… they had one month to decide if they wanted their memories back. It was exceptionally cruel.

“Maybe. Angie thinks… she would be friends with this girl.” She’s started the video again, muted, and starts shaking, “Angie… Angie does not know if she should even believe in it, anymore, but Angie hopes this girl will be waiting with Atua.”

“Angie…” She’s crying fully now, and Kirumi can do nothing but hold on and whisper words into her ear, “It’s okay. It will be okay. Rantaro is here, Gonta is here. Shuuichi, Kaito, Oma, Miu… they’re all in the city. And… I will be here. As long as you have need of me, I will be here.”

“Angie doesn’t deserve to live… she deserves nothing but death…” She wails loudly, and… sure enough, the door opens and Rantaro’s voice floats over.

“Is everything okay?” He’s been… incredible. Really incredible. He’s been helpful for so many of them… even including her. It felt awful to need someone like that, as she was still fighting the… Maid they made her into, but… He’s been on his phone for three, four hours a day. Calling everyone, checking up on everyone, making sure things are okay. He’s become the surrogate father of the group, in a way.

“Sorry, Rantaro!” Angie’s voice perked up immediately once he came in, “Angie is…”

He doesn’t let her finish and says, “Don’t worry about it… I was just a little worried. I guess I didn’t need to be, eh, Kirumi?” He chuckles, “If you wanna tell me what’s going on, that’s okay… it’s also okay if you never ever tell me.”

“Ah, Rantaro.” She can’t help but blush, having finally realized the position she was in. If there was a way of extracting herself from Angie quickly without making herself look even more foolish, she would.

“I know, I know… sorry, third wheel alert!” He closes the door slowly and finishes with, “Take care of each other, okay?”

“Kirumi?” The door closed and it took Angie a minute to digest the conversation, “Is…”

“Ah, well…” She really doesn’t want to admit her crush, here… now… it’s awful timing.

“Kirumi? Do you want Angie?” She whispers, barely audible.

“I… I… I want to show YOU something.” she avoids the question, and finally extracts from Angie. She feels… cold, all of the sudden, “I’m not doing this because you showed me, exactly. I was thinking of showing you anyway, just… I want to show you.” She pulls out her phone and buries herself in it, ignoring Angie’s gaze until she finally logs into the Danganronpa server. She puts the phone in Angie’s hands and goes back to their previous position.

She’s far too comfortable here…

“Okay.” Angie says simply, and presses play.

Kirumi Tojo is… clearly destitute. She’s wearing an awful, ratty dress, and her hair is extremely matted. More importantly, though… her eyes. The eyes of a woman who wants nothing more than to stop existing.

“Kirumi Tojo, correct?” Tsumugi asks, interestedly, “I didn’t realize you’d be coming. If I recall, you haven’t answered our calls for quite a while.”

“I’ve been on the streets for… for a while.” The girl smiles, though with the dead eyes, it comes off as supremely insincere, “You know why, right?”

“Well… yes, but I want to hear it from you.”

“Fine. My name is Kirumi Tojo. I was born on May 10th. I was a extremely normal school girl until I was 9 years old… When my parents died. They weren’t parents of the year… they were tortured to death. They were Yakuza, you see… and they supported the wrong candidate for head of the family. Therefore, I was passed off to my maternal grandparents, who were… who are…not good people.”

“How so?”

“They… they’ve treated me as their servant for 9 years. I was their unofficial maid by the time I was 10. They’re high ranking members of the local government, and therefore were able to hide their abuse from any interested parties. I was beaten half to death, starved… I wasn’t allowed any friends, nor was I allowed to talk to anyone besides them. I barely left the house, in fact, except for school.”

“I see… If I may… you don’t seem too, well… you seem pretty normal, considering the circumstances.”

“Due to their position, I was forced to learn this role of prim and proper granddaughter. In addition to school, of course.” She gives a dry laugh, “Did you know that my grades were exceptional? I was one of the smartest students in my high school, and it was quite large.”

“So… why couldn’t you escape properly? Go to college?”

“Even now… I don’t believe I deserve these things. The hardest part of living on the streets is fighting the instinct to come crawling back, tail between my legs. My impressive school life? I did so because I was a trophy they could show. I forced myself to move to Tokyo so I couldn’t come back to them so easily.”

“You don’t seem to afford me any respect.” Tsumugi asks rationally.

“Ah… I suppose so. I guess that wouldn’t make sense to you… you’re a rich woman, Tsumugi Shirogane, and my superior in every way. Even then, I can’t help but treat you as someone equal to me, due to our similar age. I know we aren’t, of course… you’re far superior to me in every way… but my grandparents taught me to obey them, and those like them, above all else. So my apologies.”

“Kirumi… I still don’t get it.” Tsumugi was actually trying to argue against her joining the show, “You seem reasonably well-adjusted. Why not just…”

“Ah… I think I’ve been hiding the most important part of this to you.” She smiles cheerfully, eyes dancing with… some emotion, “I failed my mission. I abandoned my master and mistress, to fend for themselves… not that I think that I’m important to them, but… for a maid to run away from her duties? There can be no greater shame. What is a maid that doesn’t serve anyone? Just a girl, who’s failed. And that’s all I am… a failure.”

“You recognize that your grandparents treated you horribly, you recognize that you have an exceptional intellect…”

“As I ran away, was it not… proper, of them, to treat me so terribly? Didn’t it turn out to be the correct move?”

“That’s… really backward!” Tsumugi was yelling now, anger pouring from her voice, “Tell me who these people are!”

“I will not.” She says, warning in her voice, “To abandon them is one thing, but reveal their indiscretions? I’d rather kill myself. Though I suppose that’s what I AM doing.”

“Fine. Fine. You win.” Tsumugi relents, finally, “You’re probably going to die, a needless death, when you could’ve been so much more. Someone important.”

“Me, important? I’m just a maid. That’s all I ever am, all I ever was, and all I ever will be.” She says with finality, “All I ask is that you kill me quickly, I shant think they’d want to watch this show for very long.”

“Whatev-”

“And make me the Ultimate Maid, of course.”

“Kirumi…” Angie was appalled at the video.

“Did you know Tsumugi’s plan for me? My motive would be that I was the secret prime minister of Japan. The Ultimate Maid would, of course, serve all that she could. Which included the entire country.” Tsumugi had largely avoided her at the recovery center. Or was it her that was avoiding Tsumugi… She couldn’t really tell.

“Kirumi Tojo changed her name legally, and was able to obscure it so that no one besides the members of her hometown would ever know that they could trace her back to those grandparents. The extent to which she hid their connection was… it was impressive, considering how little money she must’ve had.”

“Ahhh… Maybe Atua knew.” She responds, twirling Kirumi’s cell phone on the bed absentmindedly, “Maybe we both knew, somehow… that we were similar. Both Kirumi and Angie were broken…”

“Perhaps.” She didn’t attribute it to any religious being, but maybe there was some strange force at work that brought them together, even when they didn’t realize why.

“Did you know why Angie was sent this phone?” She switches topics, “Angie has been getting messages from Haru. Proclaiming love… wanting forgiveness…”

“No doubt… trying to get your money.” Just from Angie’s video, she couldn’t assume anything else.

“You are too smart, Kirumi!” She giggles, “Angie wonders… do you think it’s wrong for Angie to want revenge?”

Kirumi’s been debating this one herself… She could find the grandparents. She knows she can, even if she has to spend the money on a private investigator… She doesn’t know if she can do anything legally, of course, but. There’s a part of her, some baser part of her soul, that wants to hurt them.

It’s illogical for several reasons. First off, she’s not the same person. She doesn’t have any of her memories, and the only reason she’s still a ‘maid’ is because she asked Tsumugi to keep her as such. Second, she’d be potentially destroying her future for people that shouldn’t matter to her anymore. Plenty of people did far worse things to their charges. Thirdly, it would be betraying the way they escaped Danganronpa. Not by murdering anyone, not by tricking anyone… but working together, and helping each other.

But… didn’t that girl deserve revenge? She died, and her murderers would be getting off without so much as a reprimand. Not only that, but she was emotionally and mentally broken. Murder is one thing, but systematic abuse over a period of 9 years? Half of her life was spent with these monsters who saw her as an object. There was no wonder she desired death so much… they made her believe her net worth was tied to how well she could appease them.

“I… No. I don’t.” She can’t help but be truthful to Angie, even though she knows it’s the wrong answer, “I… I’ve come close to hiring a private investigator, to find these grandparents of mine.”

“Maybe that’s why we’re living here! Rantaro and Gonta are… they are cinnamon rolls, yes? Angie doesn’t want to disappoint them. She doesn’t want to disappoint anyone here.”

“Yes… we have to be here for each other. Not just Rantaro and Gonta… Maki. Tenko. Shuuichi. Miu. Oma… Kaito, and Kaede. Himiko. Shinguji… Ryoma. They’re all here, and they’re all alive.” She can feel her heart beat as she says each one, “They… We survived a horrific ordeal, but it’ll always be with us. Even though we were there for less than week, even though we’ve really only known each other for a month. The ones who were born 4 weeks ago, and the ones who were born 18 years ago… We’ll never forget it. The bonds we formed…”

“Kirumi…” Angie wiggles out from her embrace and turns to face her, eyes twinkling with tears and a carefree smile on her face, “Kirumi, Angie would… like to kiss you.”

“Oh… okay.”

She can fulfill that request, at least.

\------

Angie Yonaga: Tsumugiiiiiiiiiii~~~~

Tsumugi Shirogane: hey angie

Tsumugi: i heard about the package and teh phone, im still on paid leave so did everything turn out alright

Angie: Nyahaha! Haru is a gold-digging bitch! Angie wants to drive a stake through her skull with my chiseling hammer! Do not worry, though, Atua always provides!

Angie: Or Angie always provides?

Angie: Angie showed Kirumi her video

Tsumugi: oh yeah? 

Angie: angie has a girlfriend~~~~~

Tsumugi: i told you thinks would be fine

Tsumugi: things*

Tsumugi: before i realized i was going to have to watch everyone die, i picked all of the people i thought would make a good show

Tsumugi: i also picked some of the gayer ones

Tsumugi: gay misery loves gay company i guess

Angie: Angie has one question

Angie: Angie actually has many questions, but one in particular

Angie: Why did you put a spider on Kirumi’s dress? There was nothing in her video about a spider

Angie: oh yeah, I watched her video as well. Angie has far too many people she wants to drive stakes through...

Angie: We promised we wouldn’t! Well, not about the stake driving specifically, but Angie thinks no stake driving was implied.

Tsumugi: oh, spiders are cool

Tsumugi: also there were plenty of people i wanted to drive stakes through listening ot everyone’s story… i guess, now that i was in one, i realize how awful the killing game is

Tsumugi: seems like it’d be obvious from the name, but no one said i was smart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pre-show Angie is giant weeb. don't you dare knock my headcanon.
> 
> next one is PROBABLY Shuuichi / Kaito. I'm far too gay to have ever written boys love before, but it's already half written so... I guess I can just pretend Shuuichi is Naoto from Persona 4

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also unsure which pairings there'll be, if any, so yeah.


End file.
